Rex Smith: Fluff and other stuff get a place

The very first story that appeared under my byline in a real newspaper — thus excluding The Maywood Roundup, the neighborhood tattler I created when I was 8 — was a piece about a marching band festival. It wasn’t important news, obviously, but after “thousands of high school bandsmen stepped off smartly to the cadences of hundreds of throbbing drums,” as I wrote, the editors of the newspaper where I was a summer intern put the story on the front page. That was 38 years ago today.

Even then, clearly, editors confronted a daily choice between the important and the merely interesting, a prioritizing that might be characterized as spotlighting news that is either hard or soft.

In that sense, there was nothing new to the criticism I received this week from a reader who complained about “fluff, human interest or otherwise, on the front page” of the Times Union. That, he said, bespeaks “a declinng commitment to serious news.”

It was with that criticism in mind that I sat with other editors around a conference table Thursday to choose the elements for the next day’s front page. There was plenty of news. President Obama had spoken at Cairo University. Files on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s record had gone to the senators who will vote on her confirmation. The state Capitol was abuzz over the notion of a $20,000 buyout for state workers, which the Times Union had reported exclusively that morning.

Unbeknownst to Mike Patrizio, the Shaker High band director, at his final concert Thursday night a crowd of alumni were going to take the stage for a surprise performance under his baton. Our reporter and photographer had attended a secret rehearsal Saturday to lay the groundwork for a story that would come together near deadline. It was a real-life version of what the character played by Richard Dreyfuss experienced in the 1996 movie, “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

If you saw the centerpiece of yesterday’s front page or viewed the fine video online, you know the decision we made. Blame it on the hours I spent in a high school band’s trombone section, but I find it impossible to look at the joyous expression on Mike Patrizio’s face as he conducted that last number, so wonderfully captured by photographer Cindy Schultz, without getting a lump in my throat.

But that emotional response aside, what’s the value of that kind of coverage?

Journalists are supposed to give you a true picture of the world beyond your own experience. It’s a simple charge, but delivering on it is anything but.

Nowadays, people get information from all over the place, so a newspaper is stale if it just reports what happened yesterday, and it wastes our limited space if it offers too much content you can find easily elsewhere.

Thus, our front-page coverage of the President’s Cairo speech, alongside the concert story, went beyond the straight news: It was an analysis from our Washington bureau, exploring what reporter Rick Dunham described as the moment’s “political stakes and the diplomatic risks.”

To meet our responsibility, we must give you information that will help you transact the business of life. So above the concert photos was an article focusing on the likely harsh local impact of the recession. Knowing what’s ahead may help us prepare, even if we don’t like the view.

And at the bottom of the front page was a revealing story on organized labor’s quiet role pushing to allow gay marriage in New York, the most controversial issue of the year in state government.

All of those were “hard” stories, certainly. But it’s the “soft” story you’ll remember — the tale of Mr. P’s opus, as the students who love him might say.

A full picture of our community must include the acts of kindness and generosity by our neighbors, as well as the undeniably newsworthy acts of officialdom and and the exceptions to usual behavior, like crime and corruption. We give you all that, plus serious investigative reporting.

There’s plenty of hard news. You may call the other stuff “fluff” and consider it irrelevant. I’d say it’s part of what defines our community, not to mention what makes us human, and it has a place here.

9 Responses

Thank you, Mr. Smith, for the “Mr. P’s Opus” story and video! As a reader of “hard news”, I am sorry to say, but I more often turn to the NY Times headlines online or the BBC news etc., so it is the local stories that bring me back to the TU.

I was there for the Shaker tribute to Mr. Patrizio. My 3 sons have been his students form 2003 to right now. The two older ones have gone on to major in music in college and the youngest is a bassist in the ESYO. SO my family is greatly indebted to the insipration and laughter that Mr. P. has given to us.

Thank you, TU, for having the foresight and daring to place this uplifting story front and center.

(And – sorry – the President’s speech was still analyzed in more detail in many other sources anyway…))

I would have much rather have read this story than the constant barrage of propaganda covering his highness that we are exposed too day in and day out since January that has not made very good reading.

I recently read in one of the industries own journals that the news coming out of Washington is NOT selling papers and the buying public is disgusted..

So it must be really hard to make that decision as to what goes on the front page. If you put his highness on second page you might have some explaining to do to your lords and masters, but on the other hand, he’s not drawing a buying crowd… so what do you do…. You mix it up instead of relegating the worthless one to the second page…Chicken!

In fact to get the real news I had to go read the on-line newspapers of those foreign countries that his highness has visited to get a true picture because we are not getting if from AP or any other paper here…Thank goodness for the Arts and Letters website…

I also do not recall reading in the Times Union the entire list that the office of Homeland Security sent out to all Law Enforcement Agencies and well had to use my own sources to get the list and here it is for all to see, it my not be exact but you’ll get the gist of it:

You might be a danger to the United States and come under Law Enforcement Scruity if you:

I find the list extremely intersting as it is a laundry list to negate the right of free speech and your right to have an opinion different than what the powers to be want you to have…

At one time I thought being a Demoncrat meant protecting the right to the freedom of speech and to have different thoughts and ideas and that the Demoncrat Party was for the little guy but sadly it is not… It appears the Demoncrats have brought us, Poltical Correctness, Surppressed Freedoms, Enslavement to the Government through excessive taxes, Play to Pay, and so many other right curtailing laws and activities that are enacted almost on a daily basis…

And that is the real news that should be on the Front Page….Along with the Band Director who helped and made happy so many people… Not some guy who’s seeking to enslave a nation….

I said it on my blog, but I want to thank you again for the front page story. I definitely shed some tears over breakfast as I read that story. It’s sad, but heartwarming, and that’s what I like my front page to be. I know there is unpleasantness around the world that I will have to read about every day, but the story about Mr P allowed me to start my day off on a happy note!

I often wonder why such trivial things are placed on the front page rather than in the local interest pages rather than news that affects our lives. Guess I know now. It pulled the whimiscal little heartstrings of an editor and feely-good is more important to him than my knowing what’s going on in the world that matters to me.

Different priorities is all. And they wonder why newspapers are going belly up!

Mr. Smith,
Your approach is a long-established practice in presenting daily news on A1. Please ignore those who would find fault in everything. Feature stories, and their art, break up the serious news of the day and provide balance. This is especially important for a local publication. I think the paper is doing a great job in a difficult environment. And no, placement of a feature story is not what’s hurting newspapers. It’s an unfortunate combination of falling ad revenue, changing consumer tastes (online vs. print), the current economic downturn, and other more complicated reasons.
BTW, I recommend eliminating the online feedback option (yes, I know I am using it to communicate now). These comments often tarnish the professional writing above with ranting from the fringes.

Gerald
Eliminating the online comments would reduce the number of readers of the Times Union Online at a time when it is losing print readers by the thousands. The only growing market for newspaper readership is online and providing readers with a venue to comment is one of the reasons for that growth.

I find the statements of “Gerald” very disturbing. Especially his last sentence… For it is quite apparent that “Gerald” supports the suppression of free speech, but at the same time supports free speech only if it is his free speech.. Is this not what our President is doing daily.

Therefore this statement makes his entire paragraph a worthless item and if I catch the tone of his paragraph he is all knowing and you should only follow what he says, not what others say, therefore his last sentence makes sense in that the world should only listen to “Gerald” and that is the problem with people like Gerald who have been running newspapers.

You see the results of this attitude and opinion everyday in sales….It’s a loser, it is not fair and balanced, it is opinionated, and almost dictatorial. But he smoozes you at the same time with compliments… What a piece of work this is.. An excellent example of a hypocrite at work.. I know you claim not to accept comments with personal attacks but his entire written statement is basically a personal attack on those who are supposedly ranting from the fringes,,, he’s just slicker at it….

I have to concur with Eddie. I read Gerald’s and thought WTF? So his opinion is the only one that matters?

Um, I don’t count why? I’ve been reading the TU since I was 5 and I’m now 51. I sure as hell should count as a reader they could lose. And, currently, I’m only reading the Sunday. Keep me interested so you don’t lose that. I buy it for the TV Guide but read the rest. If it gets so there’s nothing worth reading, I’ll probably stop and just subscribe to TV Guide (or better yet, go to their website, they do give the new digital channels) rather than trouble myself to go out on Saturday morning for the early Sunday edition.

And, like I said, it’s a nice story. Just doesn’t belong on the front page. Here’s a thought — knowing the TU carries those kind of stories is what keeps me turning the page past the front page headlines — which are what I could get off the internet along with the TV listings. Local interest is the reason for the TU to exist at all.

But first I want to know the major headlines. Once I’m satisfied with that, I’m gonna move on to the rest of the paper hunting for these kinds of stories. Human interest, in its proper place, will keep me buying that Sunday paper. But not if its repeatedly on the front page (I was disgusted with that) when I’m wondering about some major story I’ve been wanting to know the outcome of.

The stories Rex mentions above should have been given more importance than a local teacher. Like it or not, they are more important. While its nice that he was appreciated and makes us feel good seeing such a story, this teacher being there or not makes no difference in my life at all. Who the next judge on the supreme court will be does. It was a bad editorial decision based on emotion rather than reason.